ABSTRACT

This book offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on the internet, emphasizing its spatial dimensions, geospatial applications, and the numerous social and geographic implications such as the digital divide and the mobile internet.

Written by leading scholars in the field, the book sheds light on the origins and the multiple facets of the internet. It addresses the various definitions of cyberspace and the rise of the World Wide Web, draws upon media theory, as well as explores the physical infrastructure such as the global skein of fibre optics networks and broadband connectivity. Several economic dimensions, such as e-commerce, e-tailing, e-finance, e-government, and e-tourism, are also explored. Apart from its most common uses such as Google Earth, social media like Twitter, and neogeography, this volume also presents the internet’s novel uses for ethnographic research and the study of digital diasporas.

Illustrated with numerous graphics, maps, and charts, the book will best serve as supplementary reading for academics, students, researchers, and as a professional handbook for policy makers involved in communications, media, retailing, and economic development.

chapter 1|15 pages

Introduction

part I|119 pages

Conceiving the history, technology, and geography of the internet

chapter 2|15 pages

Is cyberspace there after all?

chapter 4|16 pages

Robustness and the internet

A geographic fiber-optic infrastructure perspective

chapter 5|14 pages

The history of broadband

chapter 6|16 pages

The mobile internet

part II|101 pages

Political economy of the internet

chapter 9|18 pages

The geography of e-commerce

chapter 10|13 pages

Online retailing

chapter 11|16 pages

Finance and information technologies

Opposite sides of the same coin

chapter 12|13 pages

E-tourism

chapter 13|15 pages

The state and cyberspace

E-government geographies

chapter 14|24 pages

A geography of the internet in China

part III|126 pages

The internet in everyday life

chapter 15|11 pages

Google Earth

chapter 16|25 pages

Augmented Reality

An overview

chapter 17|15 pages

Twitter

chapter 18|11 pages

Neogeography

chapter 21|17 pages

Wearable internet for wellness and health

Interdigital territories of new technology

chapter 22|14 pages

The Internet of Things